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Comment by msmith | Hacker News Reader

How long does it take your software to crack the other half?

That depends on the number and type of CPUs available. I know better than to race my CPU against a GPU. I won't win. I'm just pointing out the fact that if you have a fast GPU (or a cluster of them as the article suggests), then the hashes should be much better than what is provided. With those hashes, any CPU based cracker can do them easily.

The article says 1 to 6 character passwords. With 12 cores, I can enumerate the full printable ASCII character set in about 30 hours, but I would not try to do that. I would use patterns and word lists first. After 6 to 7 characters, brains begin beating the hell out of brute speed.

In the article it's stated that the hashes are brute forced using the provided charset. I think you used a wordlist, which is a whole other thing.

I use brute force on 0 to 5 character attempts. I get smart at 6 or more characters. No need to use brains or GPU speed to crack 5 char passwords. Here are more weak hashes from his list:

DA39A3EE5E6B4B0D3255BFEF95601890AFD80709 "" no_pass

0D824508182A1AA0EEF9A0B6EE52F8A32AF06F0A "GoOd!" brute_5

A94B95A7A4D432DE056B0030DA879AF841376069 "GPGPU" brute_5

BFE06C47BE2390ACA934AB6A128C141DCEB4072F "G0o|)" brute_5

My point still stands. These should have been better/stronger hashes. I did all of that in less than an hour on a CPU using full enumeration (aka brute force).

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